The Mississippi basketball team got consistent scoring from two of its best players and Kansas State did not.
In the end, that was enough for Ole Miss to defeat K-State 86-74 on Friday and hand the Wildcats their first loss of the season in the semifinals of the Puerto Rico Tip-off.
With the loss, K-State dropped to 3-1 and will next play Dayton on Sunday instead of Villanova in the tournament’s championship game.
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Rodney McGruder is starting to look like a marksman.
The freshman guard came off the bench Thursday in Puerto Rico and knocked down four of five three-point shots and led all Kansas State scorers with 20 points.
His big night couldn’t have come at a better time. Play was sloppy throughout at the Coliseo de Puerto Rico, and K-State’s best two veteran guards (Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen) didn’t play well. But behind McGruder and some tough second play, the Wildcats pushed past Boston University for an 80-70 victory in its first game of the Puerto Rico Tip-off.
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How to take this game?
The Kansas State basketball team defeated Loyola-Chicago 92-54 in its season-opener and did so rather easily, which is good.
But coach Frank Martin was so angry with his team’s performance that he said his players should be “embarrassed,” which is bad.
As is the case in most situations like this, it’s best to fall somewhere in the middle. That would make K-State’s performance on Friday at Bramlage Coliseum fairly average.
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Earlier in the week, Frank Martin said he didn’t consider Syracuse losing to Division II Le Moyne as a meaningless loss.
Even though it was labeled as an exhibition game, the Orange still sold tickets and tried to win. The loss may not have done anything to their record, but it was real and so was all the talk about it on ESPN the next day.
Maybe he brought that up to his players on Sunday. Maybe he didn’t. But Kansas State easily avoided the same outcome, and pounded Pittsburg State 89-53 in its exhibition opener at Bramlage Coliseum.
After the first media timeout, the game was horribly lopsided and Martin got to experiment with different lineups. The results were overall good.
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Fans here in Manhattan are starting to gear up for football, but many of them kicked off their day by watching the K-State men’s basketball team scrimmage.
A decent crowd came out to Bramlage Coliseum early this morning to watch Curtis Kelly lead all Wildcat scorers with 10 points.
The UConn transfer looked very good following missed shots at the basket and showing off his post moves. He came on during the second segment of the scrimmage, where he scored all 10 of his points in a row for the gray team.
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When Jacob Pullen started talking to reporters at Big 12 media days this week, there wasn’t much of a crowd surrounding him.
But as the interview session went on and word spread that he was the best “quote” at the event, the cameras and microphones placed in front of his face multiplied exponentially.
Pullen, a junior guard on the K-State men’s basketball team who along with senior Denis Clemente is one of the Wildcats’ veteran leaders, had plenty to say about the upcoming season.
For your enjoyment, here are some of the highlights in a special Friday edition of “A few minutes with …”
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Kansas State men’s basketball coach Frank Martin won’t showcase his team in front of a live audience until next Saturday, but he expects his players to know the ins and outs of what it takes to be a Wildcat before then.
With so many underclassmen on his roster the last few years, that hasn’t always been the case. Especially two years ago, when the Wildcats had all kinds of talent but almost zero experience.
“Two years ago we had nine first year guys,” Martin said. “Those guys had no idea what was coming.”
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